Refrigeration



June 18, v1929. J. Fl HANRAHAN 1,717,683

REFRIGERAT I ON Filed Sept. 29, 1926 .-1 TTORNE Y.

Patented June 18, 1929.

UNITED STATES 'JosErH 1i, HANRAHAN, or LONG ISLAND eirY, NEW YORK,

REFRIGERATION;

Application flied september 29, 192e.kr Serial No. 138,543.i

This inventionfrelates to refrigeration and in particular to means for carrying out an improved means of refrigeration and embodies apparatus which will effectively retard putre faction in the storing of foodstuffs.

Tn order to perfectly refrigerate meats, vegetables or the like, it is necessary that one principle be adhered to, that is, that the cold air must be delivered at the floor of a refrigerating chamber. Therefore, it is necessary to provide means for delivering the cold air to the floor before it can flow into the provision chamber so that it will flow over the entire floor surface from wall to opposite wall of the refrigerating chan'iber and from side wall to side wall thereof, thereby forcing all of the warm air above this column of cold air upwardly to the ceiling. In order to carry out this principle, I have provided la particular construction which embodies refrigerating members or coilsadapted to `be placed iny a special condensation chamber on the wall of the provision ychamber through which the cold air will descend and at which point the air will attain its greatest density and weight.

ln order to retard putrefaction for the greatest possible length of time to preserve food in its best condition, it is necessary that the cold air be delivered at the floor before it it allowed to flow into the provision preserving chamber. The cold air, descending from the condensing coils or from other refrigerating means in my improved condensing chamber, is the densest and heaviest air in the entire chamber. This cold air, when delivered at the floor, flows over the entire surface thereof and ycauses the ascension toward the ceiling of the warmer air in the provisionchamber. This warmer air, when it reaches the ceiling is continuous ly iiowing into contact with the condensing coils or other refrigerating agents so that odors, gases and germs and the surplus of moisture are eliminated therefrom when the same becomes chilled in contact with the re frigerating means, which produces therein a partial vacuum of thefcold air, and due to its increased density, causes the saine to fall to the floor in the condensing chamber through the unification of the two greatest forces of the coldest air and the warmest part of the cold air4 y It is therefore apparent that a perfect, automatic circulation of air is obtained without the aid ofany mechanical construction such as inotors, fans, etc., which have been resorted to heretofore and produce only an inefficient method ofrefrigcration; i

Therefore, a particular object of my invention is to 'provide a refrigerating chamber in which the warmest part of the cold air is con#rk tinuously ascending in'the'provision chamber or over. the .Whole surface thereof because the ascending air meets with no opposing current of air and is therefore forced to ascend by the pressure of the cold air blowing from the ,n

condensing chamberinto the provision cham-` ber on the floor which creates aperfect and continuous circulation of air yinthe provision chamber. i

To enable others skilled in the artito fullyr comprehend the underlying"'features of my invention that they may embody the same in the various modifications' in structure andrelation contemplated, a drawing depictingl a j preferred form has been annexed as a part of this disclosure and in such drawing, similar reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout all the views, of which,

Figure 1 is a View in'elevational section of a refrigerating chamber rhaving atene end thereof a condensing chamber.

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Figure l showing the arrangement of one of the coils and its control members.

Referring to the drawings in detail,`5 inr and bottoni from the bottom 9 and top wall l() y of the chamber and behindwhichis positioned the refrigerating element 11, these refrigerating elements may, of course, `be brine carrying coils, such as illustrated in Figure 2 or there may be positioned therebeliinchany type of i' refrigerant in containers' or the refrigerant may be cakes of ice, rit being of course understood thatthey are so positioned behind the wall 8 that the whole constitutes a condensing chamber through which the air must pass and through whichfit cannot pass without coming into Contact with the refrigerating element. At the bottom of this chamber I provide, at' the junction of the'bottoin 9 and the end l2, an obliquely positioned guide board or deflector 13, this kbeing positioned at the bottom ofthe condensing chamber sothat air, in its downward movement, will be dei iected by the board 13 and will' travel, as indicated by the arrows in Figure 1, along the floor 9 of the chamber 5, the air, of course,A

passing up throughthe slotted floor 6 and completely passing-around and over the foodstuff positioned on said Hoor 6. The air will continue-along' the vfloor 9 and vwhen it meets the end wall of the chamber 5, it may again bedefiected by another delector 14 so that its path will be upwardly along theside wall beneath the side wall rack 7 `through Vwhich it maypass to cool thefood supported there# against, after which, it will find its way along the top 10 of thechamber and will pass between the upper Vend of the wall or partition 8 yand theceiling 10 of thechamber 5 into the v Y condensing chamber and down ainong `'the coils 11, as before explained.

As set forth in the preamble, it is absolute* ly necessary in order to obtain perfect re-V frigeration, to provide thecold air delivery at the'floor'of the storage chamber and in order to accomplish this result, I have provided the partition Vwall 8, t which, when the air entersat the top rthereof into the condensing chamber, prevents its access into tliestorage chamber proper, except 'atk the lowery edge of Y the wall 8 and out under the slotted iiooring 6. It is evident, of course,V that bythe time the air is forced around through the many coils in the condensing chamber, it will reach itsgreatestdegree -of coldness and therefore, Y Yits greatestdensity and will perform its mostY effective work in raising the already warmed air in the storage chamber to the ceiling or rooflO thereof and forcing it again into the ,condensing chamber, where the operation will continue over andover and with'the result that there will be a perfect, automatic Y circulation of air obtained without the aid of.

any mechanical construction such as motors, fans andthe like, which haveheretofore been resorted `to in order to provide a circualtion of air.. 'v Y Referring to Figure 2, itywill be noted that I have shown one of thecoils used to carry a refrigerating element, such for instance, as brine andin this respect, I provide( the coil vleef any suitable nature Awhich is vprovided at one end with an inlet 15 from'an'y suitablev source of supplyy and which, at the opposite end, is provided with an outlet TV 16 to the upper end of whichis ,secured the inverted U-shaped thermometer holding element 17 in ,which is positionedl the thermometer 18,

whereby readings of the temperature of the coil contents may be noted. A valve 19 isr placed below the thermometer so that the U-sliaped member may be flushed ,at will. The opposite outlet of the T 16 is provided witha coildraining valve 2O and this coil: draining valve andvalve 19 open into a suitable return receptacle 21 into which the contents of the coily may be caught when it is Y desired to drain the same or test it for quality.k

It is evident, therefore, that by my improved rcfrigerating apparatus, I have provided means whereby the cold air is delivered to the iioor of the storage or provision chainber with the result that putrefaction is retarded and that the air is in continuous movement from refrigerating agent through the food to' be preserved and back to the refrigerating chamber again, this circulation being kept up by the difference in Vpressure of airin the storage and refrigerating cham-r bers so that the air, when warmed, is forced through therefrigerating or condensing chamber about the air coils whereby moisture is removed therefrom and also odors and gases, thereby presenting to the food to be preserved, a fresh air supply and retarding putrefaction of the food acted upon by tlieaii'.

. It is also evident that I have broken up the, air in its movement about the condensing pipe f so that the same will be split up into small units by contact with the refrigerating coils, or refrigerating element, and itis absolut-ely necessary that this be done in order that fresh,

odorless airmay be swept across the food to be preserved continuously. Perfect vrefrigeration must be a raried coldair.

`While I have illustrated and described my Ainvention with some degree of particiilarity,

I realize that in practice various alterations The combinationv Vwith a refrigcrating Ychamber comprising a provisiony holding room, a slotted provision holding' supporting wall spaced from, the floor of the room and also from the side wall at one end thereof,

of a relatively narrow chamber at the other i end of the room, a refrigeratiiig element in said chamber, the upper part of which is substantially against the topof the refrigerating chamber, said narrow chamber being formed by a separating partitionV having openingsY in the top and, bottoni thereof formed by termination of the partition near the top and bottom of the refrigerating chainber, the upper opening constituting an inlet o for the warm air in t-lie provision room and the lower constitutiiigan outlet whereby a continuous circulation of air is automaticallyk maintained through the slotted walls Aof the provision holding chamber, and a detlector at the bottom of the refiigerating chamber for directing the air into the provision chamber supporting wall.

In testimony whereof I aiiiX my signature.

JOSEPH`F. HANRAHAN. [L s] 

